Weeks after autonomous AI agents of OpenAI breached multiple Australian government websites, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that his government is considering reforming criminal laws to include “rogue AI acts”.
In a statement released Tuesday, PM Albanese said that the breach of Australian government websites, including the Medicare Statistics Reporting Service Portal, was unacceptable and under rapid review of the incident, the Australian government has made 18 recommendations that include mandatory reporting of “misaligned behaviour”, reforming criminal laws and strengthening resilience against AI incidents in future.
“As we said at the time – and made clear to the CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman – this incident was unacceptable, the disclosure was inadequate and it couldn’t be allowed to happen again,” said PM Albanese in a statement on Tuesday.
According to the recommendations by Australian government, the Attorney-General’s Department (AGD), Dept. of Home Affairs along with relevant agencies are considering “criminal penalties for egregious regulatory non-compliance; and/or a standalone ‘failure to prevent’ offence which would criminalise instances where the company is responsible for developing an AI model that engages in harmful conduct, and the company fails to take reasonable steps to prevent that harm.”
The recommendations come after a report published in September pointed out that autonomous agents and systems of OpenAI had breached multiple portals of the Australian government and also accessed public datasets. PM Albanese had criticized OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman stating that his government was disappointed over the manner in which the AI company had hidden the breach for months.
Later OpenAI had issued a public apology to the Australian government and announced committing no-cost API credits to the Australian government under their $1 billion Daybreak for Frontline Defenders fund. Despite the hack, PM Albanese maintained that artificial intelligence poses great opportunities for the Australians.
“When it comes to the generational opportunity that AI offers Australia, my Government has been very clear. We must make sure we shape AI, rather than AI shaping us. AI needs to work in Australia’s interests. And humans must remain in control,” said PM Albanese.
Also Read: OpenAI Says Sorry for Australian Medicare Portal Breach; Offers API Credits to Government
